Fishing Responsibly

[Koalaboi]

Hi everyone,

Had a difficult morning this morning as I fished for flatties at the Entrance Channel. Having waded out some 30 metres from the walkway near the Memorial Park, I was drifting live poddies under a float. I'd managed one and, on putting it in my keeper net, saw a gull flapping awkwardly on the surface as the tide ran out hard towards me. It was tangled up in line and the fisher, on the shore, seemed to be trying to bring it in. It's not a big deal, just get it in, untangle it and release it. Minutes later I returned to my gear to see the gull drifting towards me still tangled. I thought I might be able to catch it. A bystander was coming out from the shore to help rescue it but the line it was tangled in caught on a rock. I tried to reach it but the water was too deep and the current was racing. It drowned. I asked the guy who'd come out if the fisher had cut his line and he replied that he had. I was really quite angry but decided to get on with my fishing.

5 minutes later, I'm into a solid fish (turned out somewhere near 70cm). I get her in to find her tangled in line. I pulled on the line and brought in the seagull attached to it. I put her in my keeper net and wound in all the line the guy had discarded to get rid of the seagull. There was quite a bit.

Furious by this stage, I waded over with the dead bird and his discarded line and returned it all to him giving him an angry lecture about fishing in a responsible way. I told him that it was one of the worst things I had seen in 50 years of fishing. He said he didn't mean for it to happen. I replied that he didn't make much of an effort to free the bird.

He packed up and left not long after. He should have been ashamed and really embarrassed as there was a bit of an audience as I gave him a serve.

I have tangled gannets, cormorants and gulls and have always been able to get them in and free them. It takes time and patience but it's doable.

A bit of a vent I know but, was I right to call him out in front of people? It's cowboys like this feller (and he was a bit of a cowboy) who give fishing a bad name.

Fishing responsibly is really important.

I let the big girl go and it was a pleasure to see her swim off.

KB

[Rey05]

100% you were in the right mate, after the video going around of the "Karen" giving a member on here a spray or doing something totally legal and within his rights, you have plonkers like this guy who decided it was too hard to free the bird so he just let it die.

 

its jerks like this that give us a bad name..... in reality fishos, hunters etc, need to work 3 times as hard to keep their image clean, cos 1 tiny slip up and it comes crashing down.

 

well done on giving them a serve, id have backed you 100%

[rickmarlin62]

Shoulda wacked him with the gull  ignorance  laziness  stupidity  all of them   we dont need the public seein us as murderers  morons like that make it hard for us to carry on our sport and not have to brave the    karens

[Rebel]

Well done mate.

[wazatherfisherman]

Good on you Koalaboi hopefully the bloke learned something

[Yowie]

Have hooked many gulls during my time, always a pain-in-the-arse when it happens, just bring them, untangle them (the bastards do try to bite you at times) then release them.

Saw a bloke hook a gull a few years ago at Lilli Pilli, he pulled the gull in to his boat, then grabbed it and bashed it to death. 😡 A few people yelled at him, but too late.

[PaddyT]

Accidently killed a couple of birds over the years-once managed to hit a gull with a full blooded cast with a big metal lure at Terrigal Skillion-it was instantly dead-must of been the most uncoordinated seagull on the planet as generally they are pretty good at dodging . The other was a mutton bird -got tangled in my line while i was spinning up striped tuna on light line , unfortunately for the bird a tuna ate the lure at the same time and dragged him down deep for long enough to drown the bird. Easiest way to handle birds is put a rag or towel over their eyes-they become a lot calmer. Funniest one i ever had was a full grown albatross that got tangled in my line at Whale Beach -he had an excellent go at eating me before i safely untangled him  (took about 15 minutes), i dont think albatrosses are scared of much-caught a couple more marlin fishing and they are always keen for a bit of a fight before you let them go. But yeah , just treat everything that lives with respect , if you are going to kill something kill it properly and then use it .

[Little_Flatty]

You did the right thing. The sad thing is that the offending individual is probably only a once-a-year fisho. It's actually hoons like that who get wharves closed and fishing banned.

[Fab1]

I caught a pelican fishing off Windang Bridge a while ago.He hooked my transom as i was driving under the bridge.I just kept driving until i spooled him and the line was free.

I didn't know pelicans could scream.This pelican was screaming out "Oi,you've got my line". And waiving his wings frantically.